What is William Shakespeare's birthday?

Answer 1

William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 and died in April 1616.

Any dates outside of those would be whern he was "not born."

Answer 2

William Shakespeare's date of birth is not known.

The earliest record we have of him is his baptism on Wednesday, April the 26th, 1564, and it was customary for a baptism to take place soon after birth.

We like to think that he was born on April 23 because that is St. George's day, and St. George is England's patron saint, and also because Shakespeare died on the 23rd of April, and people like the symmetry of dying on your birthday.

The baptismal register of the Holy Trinity parish church, in Stratford, shows the following entry for April 26, 1564:

Gulielmus filius Johannes Shakespeare.

Dennis Kay proposes in his book Shakespeare: If Shakespeare was indeed born on Sunday, April 23, the next feast day would have been St. Mark's Day on Tuesday the twenty-fifth. There might well have been some cause, both reasonable and great -- or perhaps, as has been suggested, St. Mark's Day was still held to be unlucky, as it had been before the Reformation, when altars and crucifixes used to be draped in black cloth, and when some claimed to see in the churchyard the spirits of those doomed to die in that year. . . .but that does not help to explain the christening on the twenty-sixth.

No doubt Shakespeare's true birthday will remain a mystery forever. But the assumption that the Bard was born on the same day of the month that he died lends an exciting esoteric highlight to the otherwise mundane details of Shakespeare's life.

Answer 3

Answer William Shakespeare was born in April 1564, the exact date is unknown because there was no official system of recording births at that time. There is a record of his baptism, on 26th April 1564, and it was customary for a baby to be baptised shortly after birth. His birthday is celebrated on St. George's day, April 23rd, but this is not a public holiday in England.

Answer 4

His actual date of birth is not certain, but his baptism was recorded on Wednesday, April 26, 1564. He would have certainly been born a few days to a week before that. April 23 (St. George's Day) has been suggested, perhaps because that was the day he died, at the age of 52, in 1616.

Answer 5

We know from church records that he was baptised on April 26, 1564. How old was he when he was baptised? Only a few days at most, as people were vexed by the church doctrine which said that unbaptised children could not go to heaven, and that they went to limbo instead. To avoid this fate they had them baptised quickly. Shakespeare might have been born in any of the few days preceding April 26, but people usually go for April 23. Why? Because he died on April 23 and it would be cool if he was born and died on the same day. It's the Rule of Cool in operation.
April 23, 1564. The date is speculative based on his baptism on April 26 of that year. And also of course it was the day he died and St. George's Day as well.

Answer 6

He was born in the year 1564 and he died in 1616.

I'm not sure of the exact date.

Answer 7

Shakespeare was apparently born at April 23rd. He was baptised at April the 26th and babies are normally baptised 3 days after birth.

Answer 8

William Shakespeare's birth date is Unknown. He was baptised on Wednesday 26 April 1564.

Answer 9

Its not known when he was born but he was said to have died on his birthday.